Joshua 15:53

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and Janim, and Beth Tappuah, and Aphekah,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
3 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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וַאֲפֵֽקָה

ʼĂphêqâh

H664

“and · Aphekah”

Conjunction + Noun, Proper

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: feminine of H663

TWOT: None

Aphekah = "enclosure" - a city near Hebron in Judah - (BDB) possibly a group of cities including Hebron

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

5: words
3: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

וַאֲפֵֽקָה Aphekah H664

First appearance in Scripture

These words make their first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

וינים Janum H3241
וּבֵית Beth-tappuah H1054
וַאֲפֵֽקָה Aphekah H664

Grammatical profile

5 nouns

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וינים Janum H3241 ×2
וּבֵית Beth-tappuah H1054 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 7 words from the Hebrew and 6 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 5 Hebrew tokens and 6 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Joshua 15:53 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וינים וְיָנ֥וּם וּבֵית תַּפּ֖וּחַ וַאֲפֵֽקָה

and Janim, and Beth Tappuah, and Aphekah,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 15:53 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ιεμαϊν καί βαιθαχου καί φακουα

and Jemain, and Baethachu, and Phacua,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וְיָנוּם וּבֵית תַּפּוּחַ וַאֲפֵקָה:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Joshua 15:53 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 53. Beth-tappuah] The house of the apple or citron tree. Probably a place where these grew in great abundance and perfection.

Aphekah] See Clarke on Jos 12:18.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And Jezreel,.... This Jezreel in the tribe of Judah is different from that which was once a royal seat of some of the kings of Israel, and from whence the famous valley of Jezreel or Esdraelon had its name: of this we have no other account elsewhere:

and Jokdeam; of which we have no other mention:

and Zanoah is a distinct place from the city of the same name in the valley, Jos 15:34.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

53. Beth-tappuah, five miles west of Hebron, is now called Teffuh. It is well peopled, and stands in the midst of olive groves and vineyards, with marks of thrift. Portions of an old wall and fortress are visible among the houses. Aphekah is probably the same as Aphek. See on Jos_12:18.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Joshua, in the Historical, opens this verse with 5 words (3 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼĂphêqâh (“Aphekah”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word ʼĂphêqâh carries the sense “Aphekah.” How does it shape the verse?
This verse holds 1 word here found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. What might the rare word draw attention to?
3 words here appear for the first time in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
“Janum” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
Reading how Adam Clarke's Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
3 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 5 Hebrew ↔ 6 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 5 words in this verse.
“Janum” occurs 2× in this single verse.